. Services
Helping You Achieve Successful Projects
PacificaBlue Consulting provides project management, meeting facilitation, strategic planning, and policy-based research and writing services.
Our clients are businesses, nonprofit organizations, and governments from local to international arenas, seeking to develop and implement initiatives, programs, regulations, policies and plans that create livable communities, protect scarce resources, and ensure future generations can live sustainably.
Strategic Planning
Sandra facilitates single-day and multi-day, annual, strategic planning and organizational development sessions for a variety of organizations. Organizations she has worked with include:
- Britannia Community Association
- Business Alliance for Local Living Economies
- Canadian Parents for French (B.C. Chapter)
- Cascadia Green Building Council
- Compassionate Eye Foundation
- Connecting Environmental Professionals
- David Suzuki Foundation
- Downtown Squamish Business Improvement Association
- Environmental Fund of B.C.
- Evergreen
- Fraser Headwaters Alliance
- Friends of Wild Salmon
- Grasslands Conservation Council of British Columbia
- Langley Environmental Partnership Society
- Marine Conservation Caucus
- My Sea 2 Sky
- Oceans Network Canada
- Okanagan Collaborative Conservation Program
- Pedal Society- Our Community Bikes
- Power to Be Adventure Therapy Society
- reSource Rethinking Building Inc.
- Rivershed Society of BC
- Sierra Club of Canada - BC Chapter
- Special Olympics International Headquarters
- Squamish Minor Hockey Association
- Stream of Dreams Murals Society
- Tourism Squamish
- Tradeworks Training Society
- Vancouver City Savings
- West Coast Women's Legal Education & Action Fund
- West Point Grey Community Association
- Wild B.C
Strategy Projects
District of Squamish, Marine Action Strategy
With a growing population, expanding waterfront development, and ever-increasing storm and coastal climate impacts, PacificaBlue Consulting continues to provide stakeholder engagement and strategic planning services for the District of Squamish. For this initiative, Sandra project managed and facilitated internal and external stakeholder sessions and helped to develop a Marine Action Strategy (MAST).
MAST is a strategy for the District to align marine objectives and maximize broader opportunities, from supporting coastal marine-based natural capital protection and stewardship, to marine-dependent industries, waterfront revitalization, recreation, tourism, and other social-economic and development benefits. The aim of MAST is to mobilize shared leadership within the local marine environment and align municipal policies and decisions within several key marine focus areas.
Strategic directions are found in four key focus areas including governance and shared leadership; marine industrial and local business economy; stewardship and coastal ecosystem protection; and recreation/tourism gateway – all developed by the people involved in the engagement process. The engagement process was deeply robust, involving informant interviews, stakeholder focus sessions, a public marine forum, open house, public online survey, liaison with other governments, and Council updates. MAST was Council-approved in June 2018 and continues to strongly guide Squamish in planning and decision-making in the intertidal and marine realm.
Facilitation
Facilitation of public processes or internal staff meetings continue to be a focus of Sandra’s ongoing work at PacificaBlue Consulting. Sandra meets with clients to clarify goals, develop objectives, and brainstorm process design ideas. With a clear work plan, she takes leadership on project managing initiatives, allowing client staff to continue their busy work schedules and meet when necessary to review design products and materials.
Marine Protected Area Development
Sandra continues to lead project design, facilitation and reporting services for the Province, Federal Government of Canada and First Nations on matters related to the development of a network of Marine Protected Areas in Canada.
The trinational partnership process for the Sg’aan Kinghlas - Bowie Seamount MPA Advisory Committee involved Sandra’s facilitation services for the unique partnership between the federal government of Canada and the Haida and Coastal First Nations.
She recently facilitated a series of Offshore Pacific Advisory Committee meetings to develop a large MPA offshore of Vancouver Island as well as facilitating for the Southern Resident Killer Whale Sanctuaries Technical Committee to determine management measures and slow down zones to protect BC’s Orcas.
Sandra facilitated a webinars series related to the MPA Network and recently designed and facilitated a 150-person conference, the MPA Network Forum, for community stakeholders, the fishing sector, coastal First Nations, environmental nonprofits and government with a focus on the Northern Shelf Bioregion.
Sandra is also involved in workshop design and facilitation on Glass Sponge Reefs and Rockfish Conservation Areas in Howe Sound and the Georgia Strait with governments, First Nations, and commercial and recreational fishing parties.
Engagement services for these initiatives includes development of terms of reference for working committees and ongoing discussions involving local First Nations, sport and commercial fisheries, Regional Districts, environmental, science, and other provincial and federal agency interests. A key challenge is collaborating together to meet conservation objectives while addressing socioeconomic impacts on local communities.
Community Impact Real Estate Society
Community Impact Real Estate Society (CIRES) is a lease and property management social enterprise purposed to manage a commercial property portfolio designed to ensure affordable goods, services, and social service supports are available and accessible to low-income residents living in the inner city.
Sandra designed and led a series of stakeholder engagement workshops in the inner city to convey CIRES’ role in the community, enable CIRES to be a support and build strong relationships based on a shared vision for an inclusive and robust local serving economy that supports the well-being of low income and vulnerable residents.
Sandra assisted CIRES through a Board strategic planning workshop which created a strategic framework to guide it direction for the next several years.
First Nations and the BC Government leading Visitor Use Management Strategies
Increasing visitor use is a growing issue of concern for British Columbia and particularly for the First Nations with traditional territories in Sea to Sky Country. BC Parks collaborated with key Nations to discuss the co-development of a visitor use management strategy that identifies values and management measures for a land in and around a provincial park.
PacificaBlue Consulting facilitated the liaison and engagement process with the Nations and used the framework to create a vision and strategic directions. This collaborative model is to be integrated into recreation and tourism planning and decision-making with key First Nations in other areas of British Columbia.
Managing and Protecting Grasslands For the Future
PacificaBlue has worked with the provincial government and key grasslands stakeholders to facilitate and report on community engagement events towards the development of a set of best management practices for using and conserving grasslands. Key players who recreate, use or manage recreation in British Columbia’s grasslands were assembled to identify best practices to reduce and prevent impacts to grasslands in the Thompson and Okanagan basins.
Facilitation and reporting included developing measures to mitigate fragmentation and development in BC’s interior. Engagement with stakeholders led to a year-long process to conduct a provincial analysis of the issues relating to fragmentation and development of BC’s grasslands. The outcome was a multi-stakeholder workshop that identified important issues and possible solutions.
Policy and Planning
Governments and particularly staff need outside neutral facilitators to assist in leading the design of engagement processes that will lead to effective policy design for areas under its jurisdiction or traditional territory. Whether it is regional, federal, or First Nations governments, Sandra provides policy and planning facilitation to address land use, social and economic issues. Some example projects follow:
First Nations Policy and Project Management
PacificaBlue provides project management support, capacity building, and facilitation services for First Nations where her role is to ensure land and policy projects are identified, scoped, tasked, supported with key roles, and implemented on time. As project manager, Sandra works with internal and senior staff in designing and coordinating engagement events with members of the community, committees, council, and other levels of government.
Federal and Provincial Climate Change Policy Directions
PacificaBlue Consulting has worked with the Canadian and BC government to facilitate discussions about, and report on, national climate change discussion papers. Workshops involved designing and facilitating stakeholder consultations on proposed government measures to address climate change.
